orleans

Okay, so my mother and I spent last Saturday in Chartres, and by the time we left it was pouring and super windy. Luckily for us we got to leave. We had higher hopes for the next day in Orleans, and Paris looked benign enough that morning.

But as soon as we got out of the train in Orleans it began pouring again. And Orleans apparently has some sort of strict rule that nothing useful be open before 2pm (or ever) on a Sunday. I don't actually know if that's true, but I suspect it is.

We were very cold and wet and spent a good deal of the day wandering around trying to find cafes where we could get warm. It did not stop us from going to nearly all of the town's sites, though, even if most were not open. First we tried to go to an old church [not the famous one, another] but it was having mass. On our way back it was actually closed. I have only ever seen a closed Catholic church once in France, and that was earlier in my mom's visit, when La Madeleine was mysteriously closed on a Thursday.

Then we made our way to the church of Ste Croix, the famous one in Orleans. For those who might not know, Orleans main claim to fame is that Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc - aka "the Maid of Orleans") was from that area and it was the city of Orleans that she tried to save when she led the armies against the English. Before going into battle she came here, to Ste Croix, to pray. So the whole town is filled with monuments and museums dedicated to her. Here is the church:

In front of it is a memorial to Jeanne that I really liked. It's a stone block, the front has a relief of her tied to the stake and the sides have a quote and an epitaph: "Elle n’avait passé ses humbles dix neuf ans que de quatre à cinq mois et sa cendre charnelle fût dispersée au vent." ("She didn't even have a humble 19 years, but for four or five months, and her body's ashes were scattered in the wind." Sorry that was sort of bad, but you get the idea. Mom, Emily, someone, feel free to post a better translation in the comments.)

The church is really bright, delicate and pretty inside. It's full of 19th century stained glass, which is really different from medieval glass.

But it was so cold inside that I resorted to warming my hands by the offering candles:

Nothing in Orleans even thinks about opening until 2, so we walked around in vain looking for a tea shop. The town itself is very quirky and medieval, but they really need to stop sleeping in so much on Sundays.

We went to the Museum of Fine Arts, which was nice, the archaeological museum of the area, and the house Jeanne d'Arc stayed in while there. I think it would be a really nice town to visit another time..you know, when it's alive. It's fine to see it from the outside, but there was so much more we wanted to do!